Better Together
by sinderella0069
Summary: Both dealing with the shock of losing their best friends, Steven and Peridot turn to each other for comfort and company. This is a StevenxPeridot story, you have been warned. For Platon, who pointed out how very inspiring recent canon events were and put the idea in my head. Now with two bonus chapters I'd originally written for Stevidot Week 2018 and Stevidot Month 2019.
1. Chapter 1

For Platon.

This is a Steven x Peridot story. If Steven x Peridot stories are not your thing, I suggest you turn back now, because I will not be all that happy if every single comment I get is a complaint that it's a Steven x Peridot story. You have been warned.

BETTER TOGETHER

"What do we do now?" Peridot asked in a small, broken voice.

Steven couldn't think of anything to say to that. How was he supposed to help her deal with losing her best friend when he couldn't even help himself? And so for the next few minutes, he sat there in silence, staring at his unresponsive phone until Pumpkin nudged his hand and whined. He absently reached out and patted her, and then climbed to his feet. "I should go," he began.

Peridot opened her mouth to ask him stay and then closed it again. "OK," she said instead.

If Steven hadn't been so preoccupied with his own pain, he might have noticed her hesitation, but instead, he simply walked away and left her there. Peridot tried very hard not to mind, but it was difficult and in the end, she gave up. What was the point in pretending to be happy all the time if people still left you anyway? She was just so tired of hiding her real feelings. Suddenly, almost mutinously, she reached out for her tablet, the only thing she had left, and put on the most depressing music she could find and then slumped over the edge of the bathtub and just let her real feelings take over, for the first time in months.

xxx

Peridot hadn't wanted to be cheered up, but after a couple of days, Amethyst had insisted she come out of the bathroom. So instead of sulking in the bathroom, she'd sulked on the train instead and even attempted some sulking in the Kindergarten. But it was impossible for her to keep up her relentlessly miserable mood once she'd discovered the flower there and they'd decided to try planting more. She was cautiously hopeful; if she could help plants grow in the Kindergarten after 5000 years, then maybe she really could help Lapis Lazuli too, maybe all her efforts hadn't been a waste of time after all. And despite everything, it had been fun, and for a few hours, she managed to forgot that her home and her possessions and her friend were all in outer space. She hadn't been able to fix Lapis, but they'd been able to fix the Kindergarten. Or so she thought. Finding out that everything had withered and died overnight had been like a punch in the stomach. But after talking to Steven and Amethyst, she found that she really did feel a little better and after she'd showered to wash away the feeling of literally being eaten alive, she sat down on the sofa with her tablet and began making meticulous notes for their next garden.

In the kitchen, Steven finished washing up and picked up his phone. There were no new messages, and he sighed and slipped it into his pocket and made for the stairs to his room. Peridot saw the flicker of movement out of the corner of her eye and looked up. "Steven?"

Steven turned to face her, pasting a smile on his face as he did so. "Yeah?"

"Would you like to assist me in planning our next garden?"

Steven hesitated and briefly touched the phone in his pocket. What he really wanted to do was go to his room and text Connie about what had happened that day in the hope of getting some sort of response. But he was tired of hoping and being let down. It was _exhausting._ And so he nodded instead. "Sure." He sat down next to her and looked at the tablet screen, which was showing pictures of cacti. "What are you looking at?"

"Plants that can grow in sandy soil," Peridot explained. "I thought perhaps this time, we should try planting a garden a little closer to home."

"That's a good-" His phone suddenly vibrated in his pocket, and he yanked it out at once and gazed hopefully at the screen.

 _One new message_

 _You've used 80% of your monthly data allowance. It'll renew on..._

Steven's shoulders slumped and he dropped the phone on the seat next to him. "Sorry. You were saying?"

Peridot narrowed her eyes and put her tablet aside. "What's wrong?"

"Well..." Steven shifted uncomfortably. "Connie's a little mad at me. But it's fine, I'm fine!"

"LIAR!" she yelled, making him jump violently. "I saw you! You're doing the exact same thing I've been doing, smiling and laughing and pretending everything's just wonderful, because you don't want to upset anyone or let anyone down. And I'm telling you now, it doesn't work, so you might as well let yourself have feelings!"

"OK, fine!" he snapped. "I'm not fine! I'm unhappy! It's been more than a week now and Connie still won't talk to me! And I get why she's upset now, but how can I tell her that when she won't speak to me? I sent her a ton of messages, and then I thought 'no, I gotta give her space' and stopped, but that didn't work either and I don't know what to do!" His eyes filled up with tears and he buried his face in his hands. "And... and if I can't fix _this_ , how am I supposed to fix everything else?"

"Tell me about it."

Steven let out a small, sniffly giggle and she smiled. "No, really," she persisted. "It actually helps!"

"...OK." He sighed, wiped his eyes and sat up again. "I'm using this argument with Connie as a way to avoid thinking about all the other things I've messed up, but the longer she keeps avoiding me, the scarier everything else looks. So I'm obsessing over this more so I don't have to think about all the other people I've let down and hurt."

Peridot nodded in understanding. "Like me with the gardening."

"Like you with the gardening," Steven repeated. He stared blankly across the room for a minute, recalling the events of the day. "Is there really nothing we can do for the Kindergarten? At all?"

"No." Peridot shook her head. "There's nothing left in the soil to sustain life. The compost we put down was supposed to compensate for that, but as you saw, it didn't work."

"The next one will be better," Steven promised. "Better than the one at the barn, even." He hesitated for a moment and then blurted out the question that had been bothering him for the last few days. "Why didn't you tell anyone you were so unhappy in the barn?"

Peridot frowned and hugged her knees. "I wasn't exactly... unhappy," she said slowly. "It wasn't all bad, we did have some good times. But it wasn't what I was expecting." She glanced over at Steven, who gave her a slightly watery encouraging smile, and so she continued. "When I first asked to stay there, it was after weeks of being your prisoner, and I was looking forward to a little privacy. Then Lapis wanted to stay there as well and although I will admit I was disappointed, I knew it was my fault she was trapped here, and so I accepted the situation and tried to help her feel better. But..." She bit her lip. "I thought I'd have _help._ I thought the Crystal Gems – or Garnet and Pearl, at least - would come by and talk to her as well. I mean," she said with a harsh laugh, "what do I know of war or fusion? And a couple of months as your prisoner _hardly_ compares to thousands of years of solitary confinement in an object! I'm thir-far too new," she quickly corrected. "I lacked the necessary knowledge and experience to help her overcome her trauma."

Her slip hadn't gone unnoticed, and Steven narrowed his eyes, suddenly curious. "Peridot, how old are you?"

"I... I'm a fully grown gem," she said cautiously, but Steven was already shaking his head.

"That's not what I asked. I already know gems are fully grown when they emerge, that doesn't mean anything. Connie said Lapis said you were both thousands of years old, but that's not true, is it?"

"No," Peridot admitted. "Lapis assumed that I was older and I didn't think she'd take me seriously if she knew the truth. She had already made it clear that my experience of being held prisoner was nothing compared to hers, and I didn't want to give her any further reason to dismiss me."

"So how old are you really?" Steven persisted.

She groaned and hugged her knees tighter. "You'll laugh at me."

He shook his head at once. "I won't, I promise."

"I'm... thirteen," she said to her knees.

And even though Steven had half-expected it, it was still a shock to hear it aloud. "Thirteen!? Seriously!?"

"Seriously," she muttered.

"But... that's even younger than _me_!" But looking back now, it was painfully obvious. She was too smart and too curious to know so little about Pink Diamond and the war on the planet she'd been sent to check up on. She hadn't even known how to properly use the blaster in her limb enhancers, and she'd been so reliant on them that she hadn't even been able to run properly when she first lost them.

"That's why I didn't tell anyone. It didn't matter back on Homeworld," she explained. "But I knew nobody here would take me seriously, so I just let you all think what you wanted."

Steven shook his head slowly in disbelief. "And we just left you two there."

"I thought I could handle it." She smiled bitterly. "I was wrong. I _tried..._ "

She stared moodily into the distance, remembering her clumsy attempts to talk to Lapis about being fused with Jasper. "After that boat trip, I really tried, but I guess... Jasper was supposed to be my escort, she wasn't supposed to get trapped here," she struggled to explain. "And I asked about her and I suppose it must have come across as me caring more about Jasper than her, and she freaked out." She opened her mouth to continue and then stopped herself. Steven didn't need to know exactly how the truck had ended up lodged in the barn. "It was a little scary," she said instead. "After that... I decided it would be safer to wait until _she_ decided she wanted to talk, and in the meantime, I concentrated on behaving the exact opposite of how I'd been on the ship. Peppy and amusing and non-threatening." She grimaced slightly. "I couldn't ever be sad or angry or worried, not even when you were taken to Homeworld. And I _hated_ that!" She hugged her knees closer and hid her face. "I know what Homeworld's _like_ and I was so worried about you, but I had to pretend I wasn't worried at all and keep coming up with all these stupid excuses to calm Lapis down instead, like 'oh, Steven will be fine, he's probably made friends with Aquamarine and Topaz and he's on his way home right now!'"

Steven shifted uncomfortably because of course, that had almost happened, and he mentally kicked himself for not doing more to convince Topaz. "You should've told us you were struggling," he said instead and reached over and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "You shouldn't have had to go through that alone."

Peridot uncurled slightly and let herself lean on him. Deep down, she knew he was right, she should've asked for help, but she'd felt responsible for Lapis's situation and wanted to be the one to make things better. And when the Crystal Gems hadn't asked her to help with anything else, she'd figured that they _wanted_ her to be the one to deal with Lapis. She didn't want to let them know that she was seriously out of her depth. "I'll remember that next time," she said vaguely, and then quickly changed the subject. "So, now you know all about my _feelings,_ " she said, pulling a face as she spoke. "What about you? Why do you think you've let people down? What even happened on Homeworld?" She turned to face him as she asked the last question. "You never really got much of a chance to explain."

Steven groaned. He didn't really want to think about how badly he'd messed everything up, but he suspected that now Peridot had talked about all her problems, she wasn't going to let him avoid doing the same. "Well," he began reluctantly. "I don't know how much the gems told you-"

"Not much," Peridot said dryly. "They just called and said Aquamarine and Topaz had come and taken you to Homeworld but not to worry, they were going to get you back. Then they called back a little later and said you were home, but you needed rest and not to disturb you. And that was all we knew until I called you and you told us the Diamonds put you on trial."

"Huh. OK... there's a few gaps there I should probably fill in." Steven paused for a moment, wondering where to begin. "Well... it started when random humans started going missing. Lars, Onion, Sadie... then I ran into Aquamarine and she asked if I'd seen 'my dad'. And for a little while, I thought she was a gem hybrid too, until I mentioned Connie..."

A cold chill ran through Peridot. She recognized those names. "Were- were they simply kidnapping random humans?"

"No." Steven shook his head. "It was my fault, they had a list..." He trailed off, suddenly realizing exactly who he was talking to. "Uh-"

"It was the list you gave me, wasn't it?" Peridot said miserably. "None of this was your fault at all, it was mine!"

"No!" Steven leapt to his feet and grabbed her shoulders. "Don't you dare think that! The gems told me to stay hidden and I ignored them! It's my fault, you never would've had the list if I'd done what they said!"

"But I reported it," Peridot protested. "I gave them the names, I even reported the Crystal Gems! It's my fault you were taken!"

"No it's not!" Steven said again, racking his brains for a more convincing argument. "You were just doing your job. I mean, what would've happened if you hadn't made that report?" he blustered.

Peridot hesitated. "I... I would have been punished worse, I suppose."

"Right!" He nodded vehemently. The he paused and reran her words through his head. "Wait, what do you mean, punished _worse_? They punished you for that?"

"Of course." She looked mildly surprised that he'd ever thought any different. "It was a special mission for Yellow Diamond and I'd failed."

"Well..." He shook his head, trying not to think about Peridot being punished by some horrible supervisor like Holly Blue Agate. "There you go. You _had_ to tell them. So it's not your fault."

"It's still not _your_ fault either," Peridot said obstinately. "What would have happened if you hadn't told me the names?"

Steven hesitated. He knew it was a trick question somehow, but he couldn't see how. "Uh... nobody would've been kidnapped and everything would be fine?"

"WRONG!" she shouted, making him jump. "Blue Diamond had already kidnapped somebody _without_ using the list, remember? And when you all went to rescue him, she was already planning to kidnap more humans! The list just gave her an idea of which ones to take! Don't you see?" she said urgently, staring into his wide, startled eyes. "Without the list leading them to your friends in Beach City, she would've just had humans randomly stolen from around the globe and they might never have been recovered! Because of your list, the only person who was taken was you!"

"And Lars," Steven interjected.

"I don't know who that is," Peridot admitted. "But I assume he has returned safely as well?"

Steven's face fell and he turned away. "No," he said bluntly. "He died."

"Oh." Peridot's face fell as well. "Steven, I'm so sorry. I didn't know."

"I saved him though." Steven smiled wryly. "It turns out I have healing tears after all." He sighed and sat back down next to her again. "But he's come back... different."

"Is... is that bad?" Peridot asked cautiously.

"I don't know," Steven admitted. "I've been _really busy_ not thinking about it." He drummed his fingers on the seat next to him, trying to figure out where to begin. "He's like Lion now. He's pink and there's a portal in his hair like the one in Lion's mane. That's how I got home, actually, they're linked. But obviously he couldn't get into his own head, so he's stuck there with the Off Colors."

"Off Colors?" Peridot asked, momentarily distracted.

"Yeah!" He nodded enthusiastically. "They're really nice gems, they helped us escape and hide out in the Kindergarten." Then he sighed heavily. "But we were followed by these robonoids, and they were gonna shatter the Off Colors, so Lars fought them and won. But that's when he got hurt."

"You know, I heard rumours of the existence of surviving off color gems," Peridot mused. "But I never saw any of them myself." She smiled brightly. "That's good though, they're obviously very good at hiding! That means your friend should be safe with them now."

"I hope so." He glanced at his phone and slumped back a little more against the back of the sofa. "I can't check up on him without Lion though, and I don't know where he is."

"That's _definitely_ not your fault," Peridot said firmly.

"Mmm," Steven mumbled unconvincingly. "But-"

"No buts. If it's not my fault, even though I'm literally the gem who reported the list to Homeworld in the first place, then it's not your fault either. In fact," she continued, suddenly inspired, "I'll tell who who's fault it is. The _Diamonds_!" she declared, waving her hands for emphasis. " _They're_ the ones who created the Cluster and kidnapped people and sent the robonoids after you!"

Steven's breath caught in his throat. It was something he simply hadn't even thought to take into account, and she was _right_. He could've done absolutely nothing at all and the Diamonds still would've taken people and sent robonoids after the Off Colors. "It's not my fault," he whispered in awe. "It's really _not._ "

"Right!" Peridot exclaimed in delight.

A heavy weight seem to vanish from his chest, and he impulsively leaned over and hugged Peridot tight. "Thank you. I feel much better now."

"Aheh." She blushed and smiled shyly. "You're welcome."

The flood of relief that had washed over him swept away a lot of the nervous, jittery tension that had plagued him for the past weeks, and all of a sudden, he found he was exhausted. "I'm gonna go and get some rest now," he said, and stood up and stretched, hopeful that tonight he might actually get a good night's sleep. "I'll see you in the morning."

"OK. Good night, Steven."

"Good night, Peridot."

He climbed the steps to his room, changed, and fell into bed. He wasn't even aware of the fact that he hadn't checked his phone again before doing so.

xxx

So, thanks to the very inspiring events in canon, Living Arrangements is currently on hold and will return after Christmas.


	2. Chapter 2

CHAPTER TWO

The beach house was in darkness and the only sound was that of Steven's quiet breathing. Peridot tried to concentrate upon reading an article on cacti, but her attention kept wandering back to the conversation she'd had with Steven earlier.

 _The great majority of cacti have no visible leaves; photosynthesis take place in the Kindergarten, but we were followed-_

She blinked and shook away the intrusive thought and tried again.

 _-photosynthesis takes place in the stems (which may be flattened and then I thought no, I gotta give her space-_

She growled under her breath and rubbed her eyes before making another attempt.

 _-may be the great majority of cacti have no visible stems which may be the great majority of cacti have photosynthesis takes place in the may be flattened the great majority of cacti-_

"Ugh." She placed her tablet to one side and massaged her temples. When she looked up, her gaze drifted towards the Temple door. She stared at it for a few seconds, and then suddenly came to a decision, and jumped to her feet, marched across the floor and rapped her knuckles on the door.

A moment later, the door split open and Amethyst poked her head out, smiling widely when she saw who it was. "Heeeeey, P-dot! Hey, so I was thinking about the new garden, have you ever seen the battlefield?" she said enthusiastically before the other gem could get a word in edgeways. "There's like, all these huge-ass strawberries, so I was thinking, what if we had a garden there, do you think we might be able to grow other giant plants?"

"Uh, I don't know," Peridot admitted. "I would have to carry out an assessment of the site first. Is Garnet around?" she asked abruptly. "And Pearl?"

"Yeah, they're around somewhere." Amethyst stepped aside and let Peridot pass before leading the way through stacks of trash. "Actually, Pearl was just here a minute ago, whining about her swords again, and I just _know_ she's gone running to Garnet to complain about it." She sidestepped a waterfall as she spoke and scowled. "I said maybe she shouldn't store them in stupid waterfalls so they wouldn't fall into my room all the time..."

She led Peridot past the Crystal Heart and across a set of floating platforms, complaining bitterly about Pearl the entire time until they finally slid down an artery and landed in the Burning Room. For a brief moment, Peridot was distracted by the sheer number of bubbled gems, and then she heard Pearl's voice growing louder.

"-hugely disrespectful, and quite frankly, I'm tired of it."

"I'll talk to her," Garnet said mildly. Then she turned and looked directly at them. "Amethyst?"

"Oh. Look what the cat dragged in," Pearl sneered, belatedly spotting them.

Amethyst grinned and promptly shapeshifted into a cat. "Peridot wanted to talk to you guys."

"About what?" Garnet absently reached down and stroked Amethyst's furry head.

"Dunno. Didn't ask."

As all eyes turned to her, Peridot took a deep breath and steeled her nerves. "I-I wanted to talk to you about Steven. He needs a break."

Pearl furrowed her brow in confusion. "But we just went on vacation-"

"That's not what I meant," Peridot interrupted. "He needs a _real_ break."

"It _was_ a real break," Amethyst objected, switching back to her default form. "There was a hot tub and everything."

Peridot shook her head impatiently. "No, he needs a break from _this._ " She waved her hands up at the bubbled gems as she spoke. "A break from fighting and monsters and Homeworld. Maybe even a break from the Crystal Gems!"

Ignoring the gasps of shock from her teammates, Garnet straightened up and stared at the younger gem. "Explain."

"Well..." Peridot hesitated, trying to figure out the right words. "He's not Rose Quartz."

"Yes, we're well aware of that," Pearl snapped.

Peridot flinched and very nearly dropped the matter entirely. But then she remembered Steven telling her she shouldn't have had to cope with Lapis on her own, she should have had help. And he needed help as well. She stood up straighter and clenched her fists. "I will not be intimidated into silence any longer!" she snapped back. "You're supposed to be his guardians, _you're_ supposed to be leader of the Crystal Gems," she added, pointing a finger accusingly up at Garnet's astonished face. "You should've never allowed him to give himself up to Homeworld!"

"He... he said he had a plan-" Garnet protested weakly.

"Irrelevant, you should've had a better plan," Peridot retorted. "It's not Steven's job to come up with plans and go into space and face the Diamonds and rescue kidnapped humans, it's yours. He's trying to make everything better on his own and that's too much for one person. He's only fourteen!" She looked beseechingly at the other three stunned gems. "And Rose Quartz wanted him to have a normal life. He should be doing normal, teenager things like... like keg stands and Tupperware parties, not going on trial for war crimes he didn't commit."

The three elder gems continued to stare at her in silence for several seconds, and finally Peridot's resolve broke. "A-anyway," she gulped, "that's all I wanted to say, so um, I'll be going now please don't hurt me bye!"

"Well!" Pearl said finally as Peridot fled back into the beach house. "Of all the nerve-"

"She's right," Garnet said abruptly and adjusted her shades. "Ever since... well, since his success in reforming her, we've been expecting too much from Steven and letting him call the shots. And it's not working any more. He's _not_ Rose, he's not supposed to be in charge. I am." She sighed and turned away in shame. "I have to admit, when I agreed to take over from Rose, I thought things would stay as they'd been for the last few thousand years, I never expected that we might end up facing Homeworld again. I don't know what to do. I was always better at following orders than giving them, so when Steven started taking charge, I was happy to let him. But Peridot's right, he's even less equipped to lead us than I am. It was irresponsible of me to let things go this far."

"I suppose when you put it like that..." Pearl sighed. "We probably should've done more to stop Aquamarine and Topaz from taking him."

Garnet nodded. "We shouldn't have let him do that. How could he be expected to defend himself from the Diamonds when he still doesn't even know what happened?"

"Hey, uh, actually, while we're on the subject, I'd kinda like to know what happened too," Amethyst spoke up. "Because I'm clueless."

Garnet and Pearl exchanged wary glances, the Garnet sighed and nodded. "Very well. You might want to sit down though, this could take a while..."

xxx

Steven was halfway through a bowl of cereal when the Temple door opened and the three Crystal Gems stepped out. "Good morning, Steven," Garnet said formally. "Are you almost done? We have work to do."

Steven quickly swallowed and nodded. "Yeah, just about. Is... is this about Lars?" he asked cautiously.

"It is." Garnet glanced around the room. "Where's Peridot?"

"In the bathroom," he said, pointing his spoon in that direction.

Amethyst frowned. "She's not still bummed about the Kindergarten, is she?"

"No, she just said she liked the privacy."

"Avoiding us," Pearl murmured to Garnet as Amethyst crossed the room and knocked on the door.

Garnet made a non-committal noise and waited. A few seconds later, Amethyst reappeared with a nervous-looking Peridot in tow, and the fusion stood up a little straighter. "Crystal Gems," she declared loudly. "As we're all well aware, Steven recently gave himself up to Homeworld to prevent them from kidnapping more humans for Pink Diamond's human zoo. We are very fortunate to have him back safely." She paused and smiled in Steven's direction and he gave her a rather uncertain one in return. "Unfortunately, his friend Lars was forced to remain behind. Although he is with friends, it's not safe for him to remain there indefinitely, so our mission now is to find a way to get him home. Pearl, Peridot, you will be checking out all the old gem tech here on Earth to see if there's some way to make it functional."

"Yes, Garnet," Pearl said at once. Peridot said nothing, but briefly nodded in acknowledgement.

"Amethyst." Garnet turned to face the other gem. "I need you to talk to some of the humans of Beach City and reassure them that we are doing all we can to get Lars back."

"Got it, G." Amethyst gave her a rather sloppy salute. "I'll talk to Mayor Dewey."

"Uh, Mayor Dewey's not the mayor any more," Steven interjected. "He got replaced. Because everyone was mad at him about the kidnappings," he added awkwardly as the gems all stared at him. "Nanefua's mayor now."

"I'll talk to Mayor Nanefua," Amethyst said at once. "And donut boy's parents, I guess."

Steven winced. "Um, maybe don't actually call him donut boy around them?" he suggested. "Actually..." He took a breath and tried to ignore the horrible, squirmy feeling in his stomach. "Maybe I should come with you-"

"Nope." Garnet shook her head firmly. "I have a different mission for you." She ignored the low growling noise coming from Peridot's direction, and knelt down in front of the boy and smiled. "I order you... to have fun."

Steven stared back at her in stunned silence for a minute. "Sorry, what?"

"Have fun," she repeated, standing up again. "You've been under a lot of pressure recently, more than somebody your age should ever have to deal with and we should've done more to support you. We're the adults, not you, and it's our job to make sure you're safe and happy. And we failed." She stepped back and adjusted her shades. "We're going to get Lars home and this time, we're going to work together. But until then, I want- no, I _need_ you to take some time off to be a regular teenager." She smirked slightly. "Go and be a DJ."

Steven continued to stare at her, and then took a deep breath. "No."

Garnet frowned. "It's an order-" she began, but Steven shook his head.

"No, I mean, I guess it'd be nice to have a break, but it's not just me that needs one." He jabbed his spoon in Peridot's direction. "Peridot's been trying to help Lapis all on her own for months, without any help from you guys. She needs a break too, she's only thirteen!"

Peridot cringed as the three elder gems turned and stared at her in amazement. "You weren't supposed to tell anybody else that," she muttered.

"Seriously!?" Amethyst blurted. "Man, when you said you were new, I didn't realize you meant _new._ "

"It does explain a lot though," Pearl mused.

Garnet nodded slowly. "Excuse us for a moment," she said, and the three of them closed into a huddle. "What do you think?" she asked in a low voice.

"He's got a point," Amethyst admitted. "We all knew Lapis was a massive fun sink, and none of us really ever went there if we could avoid it. I feel kinda bad about that now, to be honest."

"What about you, Pearl?" Garnet looked at her team mate. "Do you think you can manage without her help?"

Pearl nodded. "Peridot's extremely intelligent, but the technology here is much more outdated than what she's used to. If she'd been able to get any of it working properly, she would've done so back when she was on the run."

"And it would probably be a good idea for Steven to have some company, what with Connie ghosting him," Amethyst added. "Otherwise he's just gonna mope around the house and stare at his phone all day."

"Very well then." The huddle dissolved and Garnet straightened up and folded her arms. "Pearl, see if you can salvage anything. Amethyst, liaise with the humans. I'm going to search for Lion. Steven, Peridot, do normal, teenager things. But maybe not keg stands just yet." And with that, she stepped onto the warp pad and disappeared, closely followed by Pearl.

"Guess I'd better head into town then," Amethyst said. "You two have fun, and don't start the garden without me, 'kay?"

"OK," Steven and Peridot said in unison and watched her leave. Then they exchanged glances.

"Sooo... what do normal teenagers do?" Peridot asked eventually.

Steven shrugged helplessly. "I don't know, I've never been a normal teenager." Then his expression brightened. "But I do know where we can find one."

A few minutes later, they arrived at Fish Stew Pizza, and Steven pushed open the door and walked inside with Peridot close behind. Jenny Pizza was working the counter and greeted them warmly. "Hey Steven, Peridot, what can I get you? We have a special offer on at the moment to celebrate the new mayor," she added, gesturing at a poster hung on the wall.

Steven looked at where she was indicating and couldn't help smiling at the image of Nanefua Pizza lovingly recreated in pizza, complete with onion-ring spectacles. "Maybe later. Actually, we kinda need your advice."

Jenny listened as he explained their rather unusual mission and then tapped her chin in thought. "Regular teen stuff, huh. I guess pod racing's out this time?" she joked.

"Yeah, we had to use it to save the Earth." Steven smiled slightly at the memory. It was nice to remember something he'd done right.

"Actually, I was talking with Sour Cream and Buck yesterday," Jenny began thoughtfully. "Buck was kinda bummed out about his dad losing his job, so Sour Cream suggested he jam on his guitar. He said working on his music helped when Onion went missing, because it was something else to think about. Why don't you give it a try too?"

Steven's eyes widened. "We should form a band!"

"That's a great idea!" Jenny exclaimed. "Can I join too? I'm getting pretty good on the bass," she added proudly.

"Sure, the more the merrier." Steven looked hopefully at Peridot. "How about it, 'Dot? You in?"

Peridot hesitated and then shook her head. "Thank you, but I don't have enough experience with music to take part in this project."

"Aw, are you sure?" he persisted. "It's just for fun, and you picked it up pretty fast the first time."

Peridot shook her head again. It was one thing to sing for Steven and the Crystal Gems, quite another to do it with three other relative strangers. "No, I don't think so," she said firmly. Then her expression softened a little. "But... I'd like to observe, if that's all right with you."

"That shouldn't be a problem," Jenny said at once. "I'll call Buck and Sour Cream and sort out a time and place, OK?"

"Oh." Steven deflated slightly upon realizing that the band would not be happening at that exact moment in time. "OK. Uh, do you have ideas what we could do in the meantime?"

Jenny gave it some more thought, trying to think of an activity that the two youngsters might enjoy. "You could hang out in the arcade?" she suggested a little doubtfully. "But that's kind of, y'know, samey." She glanced out of the window and perked up. "Or you could hang out on the beach? Do some swimming, do some surfing, have a sandcastle competition. Or if you wanna do something a little different," she added as the ideas began rolling in, "you could always go into the city and go to the movies, or go bowling, or ice skating or visit the museum or the gallery or the mall or take one of those land train tours..." She rattled off a few more suggestions, leaving the pair reeling. "-or you could just go for a bike ride and show Peridot around the area," she finished proudly.

"Um, wow," Steven stammered, taking a step backwards, ready to flee if she started making any more suggestions. "OK, we'll just... that's really helpful, thanks."

"You're welcome," she said cheerfully. "Have a good time, I'll text you later and let you know about the band, bye!"

"Man, I had no idea regular teens did so much stuff," Steven said in awe as they left the restaurant. "Do you remember it all? I kinda lost track after ice skating."

"Ice skating..." Peridot vaguely remembered the activity taking place in an episode of Camp Pining Hearts and she tried very hard not to dwell upon the fact that all of her DVDs were now in space with Lapis. "That's the one where you walk upon frozen water with knives strapped to your feet, right?"

Steven snorted with laughter. "I suppose that's one way of putting it." Then he pursed his lips thoughtfully. "Actually, I've never tried it before. What do you say, wanna give it a go?"

A smile crept over Peridot's face. She had always enjoyed learning new things, especially when Steven was the one teaching, but the idea that they would both be learning something new _together_ was even more appealing, and she nodded enthusiastically. "Sure! It'll be fun!"

xxx

An hour later, Steven handed over far more money than he'd anticipated having to spend and the pair entered the rink. The ice wasn't very busy; even though school was out, it was mid-morning and a weekday. Still, there were a number of teens visible on the ice, confirming that this was indeed a normal teenager thing to do, and so he pulled the skates on and laced them up. "OK, I'm ready," he declared, jumping to his feet. Then he wobbled violently and almost fell over. "Yeek!"

Peridot looked up in concern and flinched as a flailing arm whipped past her nose. "Steven?"

"I'm OK!" He finally regained his balance and took a deep breath to steady his nerves. "I just didn't expect it to be difficult until I actually got onto the ice."

"Oh." Peridot gave her own skates a wary look, and cautiously stood up. The heavy weight on her feet wasn't too dissimilar to wearing limb enhancers, but walking was an entirely new experience and the two clung to each other as they lurched over to the ice.

"Well," Steven said diplomatically, watching a tiny child whizz past, spin around and begin skating backwards. "It can't be _that_ hard if she can do it." He grabbed the barrier and stepped onto the ice. Immediately, his feet slid out from underneath him and he shrieked and clung to the barrier tighter. "I was wrong! I was very wrong!"

Peridot stepped onto the ice and made a valiant effort to help him, but was hindered by her own lack of skill, and the two crashed down onto the ice in a tangle of limbs. For a moment they just lay there in stunned surprise, but as the little girl passed by again and shot them a quick look of concern, they started to laugh helplessly. "Come on," Steven said, using the barrier to drag himself back upright. "We saved the world. We can do this."

It took a few more tries, but finally they began to get the hang of it. Peridot still kept one hand on the barrier, not really wanting to draw attention to herself by falling over again, but Steven's confidence grew and he let go and began skating a little faster. "Come on, Peridot," he called out over the bouncy pop music playing in the background. "You can do it!"

"Eugh..." Peridot looked at the other people on the ice. Some, like her, were clutching the barrier and inching their way around, but almost everybody else was skating quickly and smoothly. Some, including the small girl they'd seen earlier, were even practicing spins and jumps in the middle circle, while a couple of the teenagers were performing hockey stops, sending showers of ice through the air and ignoring the warnings from the attendants. She looked away from them and back to Steven's smiling face, and then took a chance, let go of the barrier and skated carefully towards him.

As she did so, one of the teenagers suddenly zoomed in front of her at top speed, startling her. She wobbled and her arms windmilled wildly as she struggled to keep her balance. Just as she felt her feet begin to slide out from underneath her, Steven reached out and grabbed her. "Hang on, I've got you!"

"Wow, thanks!" she gasped as she stabilized. Then she shot a glare at the teenager, who had been cornered by the attendant and was now being lectured. "Is it a normal teenager thing to be a massive, obnoxious clod, or can we skip that bit?"

Steven laughed. "We'll skip it." He let go of her arm and grabbed her hand instead. "Come on, let's stick together, it'll be safer."

A romantic slow song began to play, and Peridot glanced down at their intertwined fingers and felt heat rise in her cheeks. Back when the Crystal Gems had all been living at the barn, building the drill, she'd developed something of a crush on Steven. It wasn't all that surprising really when she thought about it, he was the first person who'd ever been nice to her with no ulterior motive. He'd seen that she was afraid and gone out of his way to try and make her feel better, explaining things she didn't understand and coming up with gifts to replace some of the things she'd lost. Back then, her feelings had been unfamiliar and confusing and so she had coped by simply ignoring them and hoping they'd go away. And then Lapis had shown up, and her own petty problems had paled into insignificance. Peridot had put aside all her own needs and desires as she tried her hardest to be a good, understanding friend.

But now Lapis was gone, and all of those old feelings were returning with a vengeance. And as they skated around the rink, Peridot came to a silent decision. She was not going to ignore her feelings any more. She was going to enjoy this time with Steven, and when the moment was right... she would tell him how she felt.


	3. Chapter 3

CHAPTER THREE

"-Honestly, it's a miracle Peridot ever got _that_ one working as much-"

Pumpkin suddenly started barking and ran towards the door and Pearl abruptly stopped speaking. Then Amethyst entered and she relaxed a little. "Oh, hello Amethyst. How did your day go?"

Amethyst ignored her for a moment, instead bending over to pick up Pumpkin. "Hey girl, are you happy to see me? I'm glad _someone_ is," she added under her breath.

"Didn't go so well then?" Garnet asked in sympathy.

"Ugh." She crossed the room and sat down next to them. "I'll tell you in a minute. How did it go for you?"

Pearl sighed. "I was just telling Garnet, the drop ships are all useless. I thought perhaps we could at least use the parts from them to build a smaller, functioning ship, but they're just so badly damaged. And even if we could get one working, it would take far too long to reach Homeworld. The technology is just too old."

"And I've had no luck finding Lion," Garnet added glumly. "But we're not to tell Steven this," she added sharply. "Not until we can come up with a viable solution to put his mind at ease."

"I thought I might look at the debris from Peridot's hand ship," Pearl said a little more hopefully. "I know it was very badly damaged too, but it's much more advanced. I may be able to come up with something."

"So, how did it go with the people of Beach City?" Garnet prompted again.

"Uuuuuugh." She idly pet Pumpkin some more, wondering exactly where to begin. "Well. I started off by going to Vidalia, because y'know, she's my friend, and I remembered her kid was one of the people who got kidnapped, so I thought it would be all mature and responsible of me if I went and talked to her about it. But I let it slip that Greg had been kidnapped a little while ago too, and she yelled at me for not warning them all sooner." She blushed slightly. "Also, I might have made things worse for Steven and Connie by telling her Connie's dad left Onion at Funland that night. When I left, she was looking for his phone number so she could yell at him too."

"Well," Pearl began diplomatically. "She has a point."

"Yeah, I suppose." Amethyst shrugged. "Anyway, I went to see the new mayor after that. That went a little better, I told her we'd let them know if we thought Homeworld might try again. But then I went to doh-Lars's house and his mom cried a lot and it was horrible." She held Pumpkin a little closer as she spoke, remembering their own distress during that horrible time when Steven had been gone. "I didn't really know what to do. I told them we were gonna get him back, but I didn't mention anything about, y'know, him being pink and dead and all."

Garnet grimaced. "That was probably for the best."

"Yeah. I figured we don't know much about how this pink zombie stuff works, I didn't wanna make things worse. So then I went to the Big Donut, and donut girl was moping around all over the place-"

Pumpkin suddenly began barking again and Amethyst trailed off as Steven and Peridot walked in. "Hey," she greeted, forcing a smile onto her face. "Did you guys have fun?"

"Uh, yeah," Steven said slowly. "What was that you were saying about Sadie?"

"Nothing!" she said hastily as Pearl glared at her. "Just that uh, she's a little down. But that's probably because she's the only one working there now, so she's swamped with work."

"Oh." Steven looked thoughtful. "Maybe-"

"No," Garnet said flatly.

"But-"

"No. You're not getting a job there again," Garnet said sternly. "That's a direct violation of the fun mission. It's not your fault Sadie's overworked," she added in a softer voice. "Whoever's in charge should be hiring somebody else to cover his shifts, but they've probably decided that it's cheaper to make Sadie do all the work herself. And it's a decision that will backfire upon them," she added, adjusted her shades slightly.

"Is that a future vision thing?" he asked warily.

Garnet nodded. "You'll help Sadie more by letting her work through this herself. Tell us how your mission went," she asked, changing the subject. "Did you have fun?"

"Uh..." He glanced at Peridot, who gave him an encouraging smile. "Yeah, we did, actually. We went ice skating, and after dinner, we're going to Sour Cream's place. We're gonna start a band!"

"Technically, I shall just be observing," Peridot added as Amethyst silently thanked her lucky stars that he hadn't heard the first part of her earlier conversation. "Steven will be the one in the band."

"That sounds like an excellent idea," Garnet said approvingly. "I shall leave you to it then. I have business to attend to in the Temple."

"I'd better go and start looking at-" Pearl caught herself in time. "Er, stuff." And with that, she followed Garnet through the Temple doors.

A few seconds later, Amethyst's eyes widened and she bolted after them. "Hey, that stuff's in _my_ room!"

xxx

"All right. I think it's obvious what the first order of business is," Jenny said later that evening, pacing authoritatively up and down Sour Cream's floor. She stopped and held her hands out dramatically. "What's our name?"

Everybody else exchanged glances. "Shouldn't we figure out our sound first?" Sour Cream asked. "The name might end up being completely wrong for the music we wanna do."

Buck frowned. "Surely the most important question is, have any of us ever actually performed in a band before?"

"Oh, I have!" Steven waved his hand eagerly in the air. "With the Crystal Gems."

"What did you call yourselves?" Jenny asked at once.

"Steven and the Crystal Gems."

"Catchy," Buck said diplomatically. "But that doesn't really work for us."

"I was in another band before that," Steven said helpfully. "With my clones." Everybody stared at him in disbelief and he grinned bashfully. "It didn't last. There were artistic differences. And I think I might have killed them all?"

"Oooooookay, that's kinda dark," Jenny said slowly. "What did you call yourselves though?"

"Steven and the Stevens."

Peridot snickered with laughter, and after a moment, everybody else joined in. "All right, we'll figure it out later," Jenny finally agreed, wiping a tear of mirth from her eyes.

"Let's figure out our sound then," Sour Cream suggested. He grabbed his laptop and opened TubeTube. "I thought maybe we could watch some music videos, see if we get inspired?"

They'd only intended to watch a couple of videos, but an hour later, they were still all shouting suggestions at Sour Cream. Buck had suggested a rather odd mashup of some colorful children's program and an explicit rap that ended with Jenny clapping her hands over Steven's ears while Steven placed his own hands over Peridot's. In the chaos, the next video began to autoplay and Steven recognized the muffled audio at once. "That's Sadie's song," he exclaimed, shaking himself free of Jenny's grasp.

"This one?" Sour Cream restarted the song.

"Didn't _you_ sing this at Beach-a-palooza?" Buck asked.

"Oh yeah, and you had that cute dress on," Jenny added cheerfully.

"It was supposed to be Sadie," Steven explained. "But me and her mom pushed her to do it and she wasn't ready, so I took her place." His expression turned thoughtful. "You know, she's really struggling at the moment without Lars around."

"We all miss him," Buck said quietly.

Sour Cream and Jenny nodded sadly in agreement while Peridot shuffled awkwardly, feeling more and more out of place. "Maybe... maybe she could join the band too?" she suggested timidly.

"Yeah! That's a great idea!" Steven perked up at once. "I'll bet she could do with an outlet too. And," he added slyly, "it would be a way to help her without violating the fun mission."

"She's a pretty good singer," Sour Cream mused. "It'd be good to have her on board. Do you think she'd do it?"

"I don't know." Steven admitted. "I really think it would help her, but I don't wanna be all pushy again and scare her off or anything."

"Well, you could just like, go in there and tell her about it and ask her if she'd like to come by and watch us," Jenny suggested. "No pressure or anything."

"That would work," Buck agreed. "We'll practice again tomorrow morning and send you in with a big order as a cover."

After that, there didn't seem to be any point in continuing the practice that evening, so they all said their goodbyes to Sour Cream and went their separate ways into the night. The Big Donut was still open as they passed, and Steven paused for a moment and watched Sadie listlessly restocking napkins. "She looks really worn out," he noted quietly. "I really hope she gives the band a chance."

Peridot looked at the miserable young woman on the other side of the glass and felt a twinge of sympathy. The circumstances were very different, but she recognized the loneliness on Sadie's face because not long ago, it had been mirrored on her own. She just hoped that having her friends around would help the girl, like it had her. "Maybe I should stay at the house tomorrow while you practice," she offered. "She's not acquainted with me, it might be easier."

Steven's first impulse was to protest, but even before he'd finished opening his mouth, he realized she had a point. "Sadie _is_ a little shy," he conceded. "But what about you, what will you do?"

A small smile spread across Peridot's face. "I shall write some Camp Pining Hearts fanfiction," she announced happily. "I've rather let it slide recently, and I'd always enjoyed doing that. And if Amethyst has completed her mission, we could perhaps begin work on the garden? Or would you prefer that we waited for you?"

"I guess I don't mind." They left the Big Donut and began walking across the sand. "I mean, I'd like to help get it started, but if you wanna do that while I do the band stuff, that's cool too." He glanced around the sandy beach before them. "Where were you thinking of putting it, anyway? Like, right on the actual beach? You know about tides, right?" he checked. "I'm guessing sea water isn't good for plants- well, there's seaweed, I suppose."

Peridot looked up at the lighthouse on top of the cliff that hid the Temple from view. "Could we put it up there?"

Steven looked up in the direction she was pointing and hummed thoughtfully. "Yeah, that should be OK. Nobody really goes up there except Ronaldo, and I think the gems pretty much own that whole patch of land anyway." He stared for moment longer, remembering how his Uncle Andy had tried to throw Lapis and Peridot out of the barn, and then made a mental note to get someone else to tell him it was now in space. "I'll check. Just to be sure."

xxx

"Sure, we can make a garden up on the cliff," Amethyst cheerfully declared the next morning. "If anyone has a problem with it, I'll just give them a gentle reminder about who exactly was here first." And she pounded her fist into her hand, just to demonstrate how gentle she would be.

"I'm sure there's no need for that," Steven hastily interjected. "Like I said to Peri, people basically stay away from this bit of town anyway."

"True," Amethyst admitted. "Until _you_ moved in, I think we had like..." She paused and started counting on her fingers. "Uh... Greg. In about fifty years. So the garden's probably safe. Of course," she cheerfully added, giving Peridot a smack on the back that almost knocked Pumpkin out of her arms. "I'll bet P-dot could whip up some kinda defense system to keep out Frynaldo if he starts nosing around."

Peridot brightened up at that suggestion. "Lapis _did_ take all of my old drones into space-"

"Dick move," Amethyst muttered.

"-But there were a few minor flaws with them. This will give me the opportunity to improve upon their previous design," she finished, ignoring the other gem's comment.

"But nothing that would hurt anyone, right?" Steven quickly butted in.

Peridot wrinkled her nose. "I _suppose_ I can make them non-lethal, if you'd prefer."

"I would definitely prefer," Steven said at once, much to Amethyst's disgust. "Come on, let's go and get started."

"OK, but we should probably keep Pumpkin away until the drones are finished," Amethyst warned as she headed to her room to grab shovels, stakes and twine. "If he sees her, you know he's gonna go stomping all over the place, looking for evidence that we're creating plant warriors or something."

Steven shivered, remembering the watermelon autopsy he'd once interrupted. "Amethyst is right, we should leave Pumpkin here. Just in case."

Peridot pulled a face, but she'd found some the old 'Ronalphlets' stuffed in the cupboard under the stairs and had to admit that the other two gems had a point. "OK Pumpkin, you heard them. You have to stay here," she said sternly, placing her pet carefully down on the ground. Pumpkin barked happily and wagged her tail, which Peridot accepted as an answer to her command. "Good girl." She kissed the top of her head and put her down just as Amethyst reappeared and tossed them each a shovel.

"All right!" she announced loudly, shapeshifting two more hands so that she could clap them together. "Let's get this party started!"

Unfortunately, the party didn't last long. They staked out a small plot and had just broken ground when Steven's cell phone began to ring. Peridot and Amethyst couldn't help but freeze and stare as he dropped his spade and scrabbled frantically in his pocket for it before dropping it on the ground. "Come on, hurry up an answer it already!" Amethyst pleaded as he bent down to pick it up again.

I'm trying!" He finally managed to pick it up, and from the way his shoulders slumped, they knew at once that it wasn't Connie on the other end of the line. "It's Nanefua," he said flatly.

"Bummer." Then a thought occurred to Amethyst and her eyes widened. "Ah, maybe don't answer-"

"It's for you."

Amethyst pulled a face of annoyance, but held out a hand anyway and took the phone from him. "Hi Mayor Nanefua!" she said in a voice full of artificial cheer. "Yes, we are still working on it, it's our top priorit- yes, I am aware of that... uh huh... uh uh..." Then her expression turned more serious. "Uhhh, I'm not sure that's a very good id- yes, I know it's a terrible thing, nobody should live like that, but they _have_ been living like that thous- yeah, I know that doesn't make it any better..." She let out an exasperated sigh and rolled her eyes. "Look, gimmee a couple of minutes, I'll come and talk to you. OK. OK, bye." She stabbed impatiently at the screen and handed the phone back to Steven, who gave her a questioning look. "She wants us to rescue the Zoo people when we get Lars," she explained rapidly. "But you saw how they were when Greg turned them down, they'd never cope here. I mean, they've been out _there_ even longer than I've been _here._ "

"I adjusted," Peridot pointed out.

"Yeah, but nobody else did," Amethyst said impatiently. "Navy, Jasper, Lapis- sorry, I know," she added as the other gem glowered at her. "Maybe it's 'cause they're all old gems, change is too difficult for them."

"But they're humans, not gems," Steven said hesitantly. "Even the oldest ones have gotta be what, 70?"

"Add about a hundred to that," Amethyst corrected, and then grinned at his shocked expression. "Yeah, the Fam said they've done some gene tinkering, so they're not like regular humans. They're like..." She thought for an example. "Like bananas, the ones you buy in stores. Over the years, they've had all sorts of stuff taken out and all the desirable traits enhanced, so now they're unrecognizable from wild bananas."

"They're banana people?" You could almost see the light bulb above his head. "I know! They could live on Mask Island with the Watermelon Stevens!"

"I didn't mean they're literally banana-" Amethyst began, and then gave up. "Eh, actually, that's actually not a terrible idea. The island looks pretty similar to the zoo – or at least, it did before the earthquakes messed it up, but the Stevens might have fixed it by now, I guess. Anyway, I'll talk to her, but I can't make any promises. To either of you." She gave him a stern look. "It's something we'd need to talk to Pearl and Garnet about first. It was hard enough just getting your dad out, remember? And the zoomans are safe for now, at least. Lars isn't."

Steven deflated. "Yeah, you're right, I guess."

"Course I am," she said cheerfully. "Anyway, I gotta go, but don't look so glum, chum! We'll do something about them, I promise. After all, P-dot needs to meet my sisters, right?" She gave the other gem a saucy wink. "All those well made Quartzes, you'll love 'em!"

Peridot smiled a little uncertainly, aware that she was being gently mocked somehow, but Amethyst didn't appear to mean anything malicious by it, so she let it go and watched the purple gem head off down the hill and turned back just in time to see Steven take another look at his phone before sliding it back into his pocket. The forlorn expression on her face made something twist in her stomach and she tried to think of something, anything, to make him feel better. "Maybe she's grounded," she blurted out.

"What?" Steven looked up at her in confusion.

"Connie. Maybe she's been grounded," she elaborated. "I saw something similar happen in an episode of Camp Pining Hearts. One of the campers was grounded for some sort of misdemeanor, and as part of their punishment, they lost all telephone privileges. Perhaps if Connie's parents are aware of how close she came to being in Lars' place, they may have grounded her too."

"Hmm. Maybe." Steven wasn't convinced; if Connie's parents thought she was at risk of being kidnapped, he suspected they'd insist she keep her phone with her at all times rather than take it away, so that she could call for help if she needed to. It probably even had GPS tracking software installed straight from NASA, just to track her down if she went off planet, but he recognized that Peridot was trying to help, so he gave her a small smile. And actually, when he really thought about it, she could be on the right track – Connie's parents had been a lot more lenient recently, but battling mindless gem monsters on Earth was a very different thing to fighting actual gem warriors, being kidnapped, being taken to space to be given to a human zoo, and possibly dying and coming back as a pink zombie. It was exactly what he hadn't wanted, and he was pretty sure they didn't want that either. So it was entirely possible that they'd forbidden her to get in touch with him so that he couldn't involve her in any more gem stuff. Reassured, he gave her a much more convincing smile. "You're probably right. Come on, let's see if we can get this plot dug up before band practice."

They worked together in companionable quiet for the next hour or so, and then Steven left to clean up. Peridot continued to work on her own, occasionally looking up from the dirt to track Steven's distant form as he crossed the town, until he entered a building and she lost track of him.

After that, she found herself unable to concentrate, and finally she tossed her trowel aside with a sigh and sat down and stared across the sea. Back at the barn, she'd often tended to the crops on her own; for Lapis, they had simply been a distraction, something she enjoyed doing occasionally, but never really took seriously. But Peridot had truly enjoyed farming. It was fascinating to watch the plants grow, to see the insects buzzing around, to feel the dirt between her fingers. And it was peaceful. Back then, she'd craved those moments of peace, but now... it was almost _too_ peaceful. She didn't even have Pumpkin for company. Still, she reminded herself, Steven would be back in a couple of hours, and they'd already planned to visit the museum in town. Yesterday, Jenny had said there was an exhibition of Greek artifacts there. Then she'd started laughing, and refused to tell them why, and they wanted to find out what the joke was.

It should be fun. Perhaps even... no. She stopped that train of thought right there. A museum was not the right place to confess her feelings. She needed it to be perfect. Someplace quiet. Personal.

She stared out at the sea for a few minutes more, idly watching Yellowtail's fishing boat heading back to shore when inspiration struck. A wide grin spread across her face and she jumped to her feet and began running back towards the beach house to look for the right equipment to start putting her plan into action.


	4. Chapter 4

CHAPTER FOUR

Steven took one look at a decorated Greek vase and immediately clapped his hands over Peridot's eyes. "Hey!" she cried out in surprise.

"We're done here," he said grimly, steering her back towards the entrance of the exhibition. "We're going to look at the Victorian exhibition instead." The nice, prudish Victorians who covered up their piano legs instead of decorating everything they owned with _enormous_ phalluses.

Thankfully, the Victorian exhibition was fascinating in its own way and Peridot soon forgot to ask why Steven had hurried them away from the other one. They spent the next few hours happily looking at old toys and clothes and were even allowed to sit upon a penny-farthing bicycle. But all too soon, they had to leave, as Steven's band were planning to catch Sadie after work. "She actually came to practice," he explained as they looked at some taxidermy birds in a bell jar. "But we'd already finished. I'm worried if we don't try and get her now, she'll get discouraged and we'll lose her."

"That's fine, I have plans," Peridot said cryptically. "Do you happen to know approximately what time you'll be done?"

"No idea," he said simply. "I guess it depends on whether we can get her to come or not. Actually, we'll probably practice anyway. Now Buck's got us that gig, we kinda need to whether we get Sadie on board or not."

Peridot nodded and made a few mental calculations. That would give her a few more hours that evening to prepare, but by the time Steven was done, he would be too tired for her to carry out her plan. That was OK though. She had time.

As it turned out, after Sadie backed out, Steven was swamped with band practice for the next few days. He forced himself to spend a few hours each day having fun with Peridot, even if it was just watching TV or coloring in a book together, and as the rest of his days filled with practice, songwriting and even more practice, he looked forward to those few hours more and more.

Finally, the day of the seafood and music festival rolled round. Steven made a valiant attempt to relax by playing the Lonely Blade game with Peridot, but his nerves were completely shot and he couldn't stop making silly mistakes. After Peridot had killed his avatar eleven times in a row, she put her controller down and turned to look at him. "As much as I enjoy actually being able to defeat you in combat," she said dryly, "the novelty is beginning to wear off."

"Sorry, 'Dot." He sighed and put his controller down as well. "Playing in this band is pretty different to the one I was in with the Crystal Gems. They were happy to just go along with what I said. With this one, everybody's got their own ideas." He nodded his head in the direction of his notebook. "This whole dark, moody, I-hate-my-job-I-hate-my-life thing isn't my kind of thing at all, but everybody else loves it." He sighed heavily. "I wish Sadie had been able to join us, she was so much better at this."

"You should take some time off after this," Peridot suggested at once. "Tomorrow. And do something to relax."

"It _is_ kinda interfering with the fun mission a bit," Steven admitted. He stared at the frozen pixels on the television for a moment. "You're right. Tomorrow I'm just gonna chill out and do nothing."

"Actually..." Peridot began. "I did have a little something more than 'nothing' in mind."

"Yeah?" He turned and looked at her with interest.

"But it's a secret!" she announced cheerfully. "Don't worry, it will still be relaxing," she added quickly as his expression turned wary. "Just trust me."

"All right." He grinned at her and picked up his controller again. "I'll leave it up to you."

xxx

Later that evening, the door slammed open, making everybody except Garnet jump violently. Pumpkin immediately jumped out of Peridot's lap and ran towards the disturbance as fast as her tiny legs could manage, barking loudly.

"Sadie came!" Steven yelled as he burst into the room and almost tripped over her. "She quit her job and came and sang and everybody loved us and it was great!"

Pearl dismissed her spear and forced a smile on her face. "That's wonderful news, Steven, I'm very happy people liked your band."

"Oh, it's not my band any more," he said cheerfully. "Once Sadie joined, I stepped down. I don't think I'm quite ready for serious showbiz."

"A wise decision," Garnet said solemnly, reaching out to ruffle his curls.

Steven pouted up at her. "You could've told me Sadie was going to quit," he said accusingly. "Then I wouldn't have worried so much about this festival."

"I could have," she admitted cheerfully. "But I didn't. It's late," she continued, changing the subject. "Go to sleep."

"OK. Good night. I'll see you in the morning."

He watched all four of them walk into the Temple, and idly wondered why Peridot was following Amethyst, but he was far too tired to give it much thought, and fell asleep even before Pumpkin could finish climbing the stairs to curl up on his feet. Not that it stopped her, of course.

xxx

They'd watched three movies, two episodes of Crying Breakfast Friends and some funny cat videos on Peridot's tablet. Steven was just beginning to wonder if she had forgotten about her promised relaxing activity, when she glanced at the time in the corner of the screen and jumped to her feet, tossing the tablet onto his bed as she did. "Wait here," she ordered, and jumped down the stairs and sprinted to the bathroom.

Steven rolled over and leaned over the edge of the loft with interest as he waited for her to reappear, which she did half a minute later, a basket on one arm, two fishing rods under the other one, and a hat with fish hooks in it perched precariously on top of her hair. "Fishing!" she announced proudly. "I checked with Amethyst, she said it's an activity you have enjoyed in the past."

"Yeah, it was kind of fun." He narrowed his eyes at the basket. "Although... what kind of bait do you have?"

" _Not_ gummy worms," she said firmly. "I have no wish to be disturbed by corrupted gems. And not live bait either. Earthworms are very beneficial for soil maintenance, I need them for the garden. I made my own bait," she finished proudly. "Out of corn and Jell-o."

"That sounds disgusting." He thought for a moment. "Actually, that sounds like something Amethyst would eat."

"She did try," she admitted cheerfully. "But it's not for Amethyst, it's for the fish." She handed him a rod, took the hat off her own hair and placed it on his. "Come on, let's go."

Steven nodded and was halfway to the front door when he realized Peridot was heading in the opposite direction. "Peri? Aren't we going to the beach?"

"Nope!" She marched across the kitchen and stepped onto the warp pad instead. "I have some place else in mind," she said, and tried very hard to reign in her gleeful grin. She'd put a great deal of thought into where she wanted to do this before coming up with the perfect place.

The Galaxy Warp.

The last time they'd been there together had been when she'd kidnapped him. She'd been terrified and desperate, and then to make matters worse, the Crystal Gems had shown up and captured her. And now she was one of them. What better place to show how much she'd grown and changed as a gem?

It was a little unfortunate then that Steven was unaware of Peridot intentions. Instead, the moment he set eyes upon the broken Homeworld warp pad, his eyes widened and he dropped his fishing rod. "Oh! Of course! Why didn't we think of this sooner!?" he exclaimed, sprinting towards it so fast that his hat flew off his head and hung in air for a second before gravity caught up with it.

"Wha-?" Peridot's eyes widened as he spat into his hand. "Steven, no!"

She was too late. Before she could reach him, he'd slapped his hand down upon the shattered pad, and stood back expectantly. Peridot cringed and pulled him back, half-expecting Yellow Diamond herself to immediately appear before them, but after a few seconds, they both realized it still hadn't worked. "Why isn't it working?" Steven asked, looking bewildered. "It should work, why isn't it working?" He smacked his lips, preparing to spit on it again, and was more than a little surprised when Peridot clapped a hand over his mouth. "Mmmph murph mm!?"

"The other end of that warp pad is an _extremely_ busy Galaxy Warp," Peridot said urgently. "Thousands of gems pass through there every hour of the planet's daily rotation, you would be spotted and apprehended at once if you tried to enter Homeworld by that route! In addition," she sternly added as she removed her hand and folded her arms, "you would also be giving them access to a functional Earth warp, and that would be disastrous!"

"Oh," Steven said forlornly. "Right. Of course."

Peridot immediately wished she hadn't be so harsh. "It's not a _completely_ terrible idea," she backtracked, and gestured at some of the other broken warp pads. "Instead of trying to fix the Homeworld warp, perhaps one of these other warp pads could be made functional again? Then you could reach Homeworld by a slightly more indirect route."

"But my spit didn't work," he reminded her. "It _should_ work," he added under his breath. "I haven't had any problems with it since the Geode."

"Well..." Peridot thought quickly. "Perhaps the manifestation of your healing tears has somehow interfered with your spit? Or perhaps your powers simply don't work on the warp pads. But there are other ways to repair them," she said, quickly moving on before he could mention it any more, because she honestly didn't really understand how his powers worked at all. "If the Gems kept any of my robonoids, I may be able to carry out some repairs."

"Mmm," Steven mumbled a little uncomfortably. He was pretty sure they'd all been destroyed long ago, because back then, finding a way to get to Homeworld had been the very last thing they wanted. Still... "Maybe Pearl kept a couple to look at."

"We'll ask her," Peridot said at once. "It's something we should probably discuss with them first anyway," she added, sending him a pointed look.

"Yeah, sorry." He blushed and sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck. "I guess I got a little carried away."

"A little." She walked back over to his discarded fishing rod and picked it, inspecting it critically before she handed it back to him. "But we're not here for gem business, we're here to relax and fish."

Steven nodded solemnly and struck a pose. "Then lets relax and fish!"

And so, for the next half an hour, they did that. Peridot had made the rods from junk scavenged from Amethyst's room (with the condition that she be allowed to keep one of the rods for herself; Peridot privately thought the other gem was probably planning some mischief with the puddles in her rooms, but decided she'd be safer if she didn't ask) and Steven was pleased to find that they worked an awful lot better than a stick with a bit of string attached. "I got a bite!" he exclaimed just a few short minutes later as the line jerked.

Peridot immediately abandoned her own rod and watched with interest as he struggled to land his catch – she'd done plenty of research when making the rods and bait, but she'd never seen a fish being caught in person before. It put up a valiant fight, and several times, Steven had to let the line run out to avoid breaking it, but in the end, he was able to reel in a rather impressive sea bass. "Wow, congratulations!" Peridot exclaimed, clapping her hands together in glee. Then she stared at the fish for a second. "What do you do with now?"

"Now..."Steven carefully removed the hook from the fish's mouth. "We throw it back."

"Oh, OK." It all sounded rather pointless, but watching the fish struggle on the end of the line had been uncomfortable and she was more relieved than she'd ever admit when Steven dropped it back in the water and it swam away.

They carried on fishing together for another half an hour or so, until the sun began to sink on the horizon. Then Peridot placed her rod aside and turned to him. "Steven, I have a confession to make."

"Uh huh," he said a little absently, watching the lure bob about in the water below.

"I have lured you here under false pretenses."

That got his attention. He tore his eyes away from the lure and stared at her instead. "What?"

"I mean, yes, I want to spend a nice time relaxing with you," she quickly added, "but I also brought you here because there's something important I want to tell you."

"Ooookay," he said a little warily. "What's that?"

"I wanted to tell you..." She took a deep breath. "That I love you."

He relaxed at once and smiled widely at her. "Aww, thanks. You know I love you too, 'Dot."

She shook her head impatiently. "No, I mean I _love_ you." And then, because he still didn't seem to get it, she scooched a little closer to him, leaned forward and kissed him on the corner of the mouth.

For several seconds, he sat there in stunned silence as his brain processed this information. Then it finally clicked. "Oh. Oh!"

"I wanted to tell you that because while I disagree with the way Lazuli reacted, I have to admit, she was right about one thing," Peridot said formally, sitting on her hands so he couldn't see them shaking. "Eventually, the Diamonds _are_ going to attack this planet, and we will probably all die. Especially me; I am, after all, the one who alerted you to the presence of the Cluster, which gave us time to contain it, which has deprived them of their geoweapon and, ultimately, saved the Earth." She allowed herself a smug little smile at this, but her expression quickly turned serious again. "Yellow Diamond has already tried to execute me once. If she shows up in person, she will not fail a second time. And..." Her voice faltered momentarily. "I-I didn't want to die without telling you how I felt."

Steven opened his mouth, but he was too stunned to actually form any words at that moment, so he shut it again. Somewhere at the back of his brain, he was aware that he probably looked a lot like the fish they'd just been catching, and he bit back a sudden urge to laugh. He wasn't entirely sure what the correct reaction was supposed to be in these sorts of situations, but he was fairly sure laughter wasn't appropriate.

"Anyway," Peridot continued, turning away to look at the setting sun, "I just wanted to tell you that. Before we all die. I don't expect you to return my feelings; actually, if it makes you feel more comfortable, we can pretend this never happened-"

"No!" Steven finally found his voice, and grabbed her hands, forcing her to look back at him. "No, I don't want to do that," he continued in a calmer tone of voice. "I mean, I'm a little surprised, I kinda though you and- but I guess not." He laughed a little self-consciously. "The only people who ever said they loved me are Dad and the gems. Just... give me a little time to process it, OK?" He gave her a small smile.

She smiled shyly back at him. "OK."

"I'm really flattered though- no," he quickly corrected. "I'm honored you feel that way about me."

"Oh." Her smile grew a little wider. "Thanks."

They stared at each other for a moment longer, and then Peridot cleared her throat and turned away. "Do- do you want to fish some more?"

"Sure. That'd be nice."

xxx

The next morning, Steven walked to band practice, deep in thought. Last night, he'd been too stunned (and to be honest, too smug) to really contemplate the implications of Peridot's confession, but now the surprise had worn off, he was stuck wondering what to actually _do_ with this information.

"Oh, hi Steven," Sadie greeted him as he walked into Sour Cream's place. "Did you change your mind then?"

"What?" he said blankly. Then he clapped a hand to his forehead. "Oh, right, I forgot I quit."

"You can unquit if you want," Jenny said cheerfully. "We don't mind. Right guys?"

"Nah, it's cool," Sour Cream said at once, and Buck nodded in agreement.

"Oh, no, I still quit. Sorry, I didn't mean to like, mess you guys around or anything," Steven said, taking a hasty step back. "I guess I must have zoned out when I was walking around town."

"It's OK, I almost did the same thing this morning too," Sadie admitted. "I've spent so long working at the Big Donut, opening the store every day for years. I was halfway there before my morning coffee kicked in and I remembered I don't have to do it any more."

Steven couldn't help smiling at this. But as Buck and Sour Cream began to laugh, Jenny tilted her head and gave him a hard stare. "Is something bothering you, Steven?"

"No, not exactly..." He hesitated, then blurted out, "Peridot loves me."

To his surprise, Sadie was the only one who seemed surprised by this. "Well yeah, duh," Jenny said simply. "You're a sweet kid."

"Congratulations," Buck said mildly. "She seems nice."

"Especially now she's past that whole wanting to hurt the Earth thing," Sour Cream added.

"She never really actually wanted to hurt the Earth," Steven quickly butted in. "She was just sent here to check the Cluster."

Sour Cream grinned and reached out to ruffle the younger boy's curls. "Aww, look at you, defending her honor. You two are gonna be such a sweet couple."

"Wait, Peridot, she's the little green kid, right?" Sadie finally spoke up. "I thought you and Connie-ow!"

Jenny whistled innocently and stepped back, but it was too late. "Connie's just a friend." Steven sighed and slumped onto a nearby chair. "Or, she was. She's really mad at me for giving myself up. I haven't heard from her since... well, since I got back home from space."

"Seriously!?" Sadie's eyes widened in disbelief. "That's what... nearly a month ago!" She felt a sudden rush of sympathy for the boy; she hadn't spoken to Lars for pretty much the same amount of time, but Lars at least had the excuse of being trapped on another planet. "Wow, Steven, I'm so sorry."

"It's my fault, I know that." His eyes went watery and he sniffled slightly. "I really messed up-"

"So, you and Peridot!" Jenny quickly butted it before he could start talking about Connie again. "How did that happen? Tell us _everything._ "

"There's not much to tell." Steven shrugged. "After she took me to the Galaxy Warp, she said she loved me, and I said I needed to think about it."

"What's there to think about?" Sour Cream asked blankly. "You like her too, don't you?"

Steven squirmed uncomfortably and ducked his head as everybody stared at him. "Well..."

He didn't really know how to articulate his thoughts. He knew he liked Peridot a lot, loved her even, but did he love her the same way she loved him? Sure, the memory of her kiss made the spot on the corner of his lips tingle, and every time he'd replayed it in his head, his cheeks had burned and his heart had pounded. And he'd fantasized more than once about how it would've felt if he'd turned his face just a little more so the kiss had landed upon his lips. And she was cute and funny and smart and brave, and he'd really enjoyed spending time with her these last few weeks and OK, maybe he did love her like that.

But...

"I like her. A lot," he admitted. "But... what if I feel this way because I'm lonely? Because Connie won't talk to me and Lars got killed a bit and Lapis left and I hurt Dad and the gems. Peridot's the only one who doesn't seem to blame me, I don't want to go and mess her around."

" _We_ don't blame you," Jenny said at once. She fixed the others with a steely glare, "Right guys?" she said meaningfully.

"Of course!" Sour Cream said hastily. "It's not your fault Onion got kidnapped." He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Honestly, we probably should've done more to stop him running around town at night."

Buck nodded solemnly. "I hate to admit it, but Dad... was not as good a mayor as he could have been. He's not great at handling a crisis, it's not your fault he got replaced. If it hadn't been aliens, it would've been something else."

That as slightly reassuring, but Steven still wasn't entirely convinced. After all, Onion and ex-Mayor Dewey were still alive and on Earth. Not like Lars. He glanced up at Sadie and then quickly looked away in shame.

"Steven." Sadie stepped forward and knelt down in front of him so he couldn't avoid her gaze. "You did your best to get everyone off that ship. It's not your fault Lars didn't make it. You even tried to send him back when you found him. And..." She gulped and gave him a slightly wobbly smile. "You're not the one who- who killed him. You're the one who _saved_ him." She straightened back up again. "If you like Peridot, you should tell her. Life's too short to go around punishing yourself for stuff that isn't your fault, OK?"

Steven nodded slowly. "OK." He glanced around the room. "So... so I should go back and tell her I like her too?"

"Yes," Sour Cream said at once.

"No!" Jenny said at the same time. "You can't just blurt it out like that," she added as everyone looked at her in surprise. "You have to set the mood. You can't like, just say it while you're watching TV or something."

Buck nodded solemnly. "She's right. You need to choose the moment. Or..." He paused dramatically and adjusted his shades. " _Make_ the moment."

Steven nodded again and stood up. "OK, thanks." He had no idea what he was going to do now, but he gave them all a smile and stepped towards the door. "I'll leave you guys to practice now, bye."

As he began walking back through the town, his thoughts bounced around his head. Set the mood. He guessed that was why Peridot had taken him to the Galaxy Warp and confessed as the sun was setting. He had to admit, it had been pretty romantic. But he couldn't think of any meaningful place that was suitable for him to do the same. Most of the places they'd spent time together now had too many bad memories attached. The site where the barn had been was out, of course. And the Kindergarten had been too creepy even before the incident with the garden.

He sighed and shook his head. Maybe he could just ignore Jenny and just blurt it out in front of the TV anyway. After all, Peridot wasn't a human girl, perhaps the rules didn't apply to her? But he did really want to do things _properly._

But right now, he was out of ideas, so he decided to dismiss the whole subject for now and think about something else. Like how it had been less than 24 hours and already Sadie looked happier than she had done for ages. He hoped they could get Lars home soon, him and Sadie had never hung out with the cool kids together-

He suddenly froze as inspiration struck. He could almost hear the light bulb ping above his head. And then he started sprinting across the town.

xxx

"Peridot!"

Taken completely by surprise, Peridot jumped two feet in the air and almost stabbed herself in the hand with a trowel. "Gah!"

"Whoops, sorry." Steven grabbed the trowel before she could injure herself and tossed it aside. "Can you come with me for a minute? It's important."

"Well, I _was_ in the middle of repotting some seedlings," she said, smoothing her hair back down. "But I suppose it can wait."

"Great! Come with me!"

Intrigued, Peridot allowed herself to be led down the cliff, across the town and up a hill. Finally Steven stopped at a spot where they could see across the whole town. "Wait here," he instructed. "I'll be right back." He took a step back, then stopped. "Oh, and don't turn around."

"Why?" Peridot asked, instantly suspicious.

"Trust me." Steven winked. "It's a surprise."

She narrowed her eyes at him for a moment, then shrugged and sat down and stared at the view of the town. She wasn't sure why Steven had brought her here, but she trusted him, so when she heard his footsteps retreating, she didn't look around. For the next fifteen minutes, she sat there, listening to birdsong and watching the clouds in the sky and waiting for Steven to come back and tell her what the purpose of this activity was for.

And then all of a sudden, jeweled flowers began to float past her and her jaw dropped in amazement. For several seconds, she completely forgot about Steven, Lapis, the barn, Yellow Diamond, and the failed garden, and simply stared, enchanted, as they drifted across the sky and across the town.

"Do you like them?"

Steven's voice broke her out of her trance and she glanced aside to see him step forward, a shy smile of his face. "They're beautiful," she said simply. "Thank you for showing me this."

"You're welcome." He stared at the flowers as well, and then reached out and took her hand. Peridot gave him a quizzical look and he blushed. "Look, Peridot... my life's been kind of messed up lately, you know that. The Diamonds want me and the whole Earth dead, and it's kind of distracting. I've made some stupid decisions, and that hurt my friends and family. I haven't always been a very good friend. I don't know if I'd be a very good boyfriend either." He took a deep breath. "But... I want to try. I love you too."

Peridot's eyes lit up with stars and she began to smile. "Really?"

"Really." He grinned back at her, and then leaned forward and pressed a sweet, chaste kiss upon her lips. Then the two of them sat down together and watched the flowers float by.

xxx

Several thousand miles away, the three elder gems walked across the desert.

"This is a waste of time," Amethyst said eventually. "We're never gonna find that stupid lion."

"Shut up, Amethyst," Pearl said through gritted teeth, and clutched her spear a little tighter.

"We couldn't find Peridot," Amethyst persisted. "Or Malachite. Or Jasper. And none of them could create actual portals and go from one side of the planet to the other in a second." A thought suddenly occurred to her and she groaned loudly. "He could be on the _moon!_ How are we gonna get to the moon!?"

"Shut _up_ ," Pearl said again. "We'll find him. We have to," she added, mostly to herself. All her attempts to build a functioning spacecraft had failed. Lion was their only chance at getting to Lars. But Amethyst was right, she quietly admitted to herself. They'd spent months looking for Peridot, Malachite and Jasper, and failed. They couldn't wait months to find Lion.

Garnet had come to the same conclusion and stopped abruptly. "This isn't going to work," she admitted. "Well, it could work," she quickly corrected, "but I see many other futures where it doesn't. And the longer we take to find Lars, the more people are going to lose patience with us. And Steven."

"So... what should we do?" Amethyst asked.

Garnet thought for a moment. There was really only one thing she could see working, and while she was loathe to pull Steven off the fun mission, if they didn't get Lars back soon, the townspeople would turn on them. And if that happened, the fun mission would be ruined anyway. "We need Steven's help," she admitted. "I'm not saying we let him take over," she clarified quickly, "we just need to ask him when he last saw Lion-"

"I believe the last time Lion was around was when he took Connie home," Pearl interrupted.

"Let's _not_ do that then," Amethyst said at once. "I don't wanna get in their drama. Anyway," she added thoughtfully. "I doubt she'd still have him now. I can't exactly see her parents letting Lion sleep in the garage."

"Hmm." Garnet wrinkled her nose. "Then we need to ask him how he usually summons Lion. And if that fails, we'll have to make up some missing posters or something. Somebody's bound to have seen him..."

XXX

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!


	5. Chapter 5

These next two chapters were originally posted as part of Stevidot Week 2018 and Stevidot Month 2019. I'd always headcanoned them as being part of this storyline, then I realized hey, I'm the author, my headcanon IS canon! So I'm posting them here too so they're all in one place.

GAME OVER

It was only when they were back on Lars' stolen ship that Stevonnie finally allowed themselves to think about what was going to be waiting for them back home. "We're going to be in so much trouble," they fretted aloud. "We must have been gone for days-"

"Actually, it's been less than 24 hours," Lars corrected, handing over Steven's phone, where they saw that it had indeed only been around 20 hours. The panic rising up within them eased somewhat, but still, 20 hours was a bit more than one, which was what they'd written in the note they left behind.

"Come on," Lars said, kneeling down in front of them. "You'd better get going. Let my folks and Sa- everyone know I'm taking the scenic route."

"Will do." For a brief moment, they considered unfusing first, then decided against it. Perhaps Stevonnie's presence would distract the gems from telling them off too badly. Plus to be entirely honest, neither one of them wanted to face the music alone.

They climbed into Lars' head and quickly crossed over to the tree that signaled Lion's portal, and fell out of his mane onto the forest floor. "Why are we here?" they wondered aloud, spotting the old drop ships through the trees. Perhaps Lion hadn't wanted the gems following them through his mane. Or perhaps it was just a random Lion thing. Either way, it wasn't enough to be back on Earth. They needed to get home. "Can you take us back to the house now?" they asked, turning around and petting Lion behind the ears. "We'll give you a Lion Licker."

"Mrow," Lion grumbled, but stood still obligingly while they climbed on his back. Then, with an enormous roar, he opened a portal and leapt through it, landing right on the deck outside the beach house.

Before they could even dismount, they heard the sound of the warp pad inside activating, and a moment later, Garnet flung the door open and loomed ominously over them. "What happened!? Where have you been!?"

"Hi, Garnet," Stevonnie said meekly, sliding off of Lion's back.

Garnet folded her arms across her chest and frowned. "Don't you 'Hi Garnet' me-"

Before she could say another word, the door opened again and Pearl stepped out. "I heard the war- Stevonnie! You're back!" She lunged forward, pulled the fusion into a bone-crushing hug and burst into noisy tears. Stevonnie wasn't sure which was more uncomfortable; the large, soggy damp patch now forming on their shoulder, or the squirmy feeling in their stomach when they caught sight of Peridot through the open doorway of the house. The little green gem stared back at them for a moment, and then turned abruptly and walked into the bathroom, slamming the door behind her.

"W-we w-were sooooo worried!" Pearl continued to sob relentlessly. "We thought y-you were deeeeaaaad!"

"Pearl, I am in the middle of a serious reprimand here," Garnet grumbled, but to Stevonnie's relief, she sounded a little less angry now.

Finally Pearl's tears subsided and she reluctantly let them go. "I suppose Peridot and I can stop picking through the remains of her crashed ship now."

Garnet nodded. "Could you warp to the desert and find Amethyst and let her know Lion and the children are back?"

Pearl looked longingly at Stevonnie again, clearly not happy about having to leave them again so soon, but then she nodded and walked back inside. A moment later, they heard the sound of the warp pad activating and once again, they were alone with Garnet. "Unfuse," she commanded.

Stevonnie sighed, but did as they were told. Their form glowed and separated, and a moment later, Connie and Steven stood meekly before the elder fusion. "Garnet, we're really sorry-" Connie began.

Garnet held up a hand for silence. "I called your parents and told them we'd asked you to join us on a mission that had run late and that you would be staying here for the night. Don't ever make me lie to them again like that," she said coldly. "Go home. We'll call you when you can return."

Connie flushed with shame, but she didn't argue. Instead, she climbed back onto Lion's back and gave him a pat. "Text me," she hissed to Steven, and then she disappeared.

Garnet waited for a moment and then turned her attention back to Steven. "We didn't tell Greg you were gone. We were hoping we wouldn't need to, not after last time, and I'm furious you put me in that position again." She reached into her hair and pulled out the note he'd written before they'd left. "You said you were taking a care package to Lars and would be gone no longer than an hour. I assume something went wrong. On Homeworld. The planet ruled by tyrannical dictators who want you dead," she said sarcastically.

Steven winced. "Actually, he wasn't on Homewolrd," he said timidly. "He'd stolen a spaceship and was being chased by an Emerald. We helped stop her, but the fighter jet we were using to defend the ship got hit and we crashed on an alien planet. That's why we were gone so long, he couldn't find us. I really am sorry," he implored her. "It's just, I was so happy Connie was talking to me again and we wanted to do something productive and then Lars' parents asked if we could take him a package and nobody was here and we really thought we could do it," he explained in a rush. "We never meant to be gone so long."

"You shouldn't have gone at all!" She dismissed her shades, closed her eyes and rubbed the bridge of her nose. When she opened her eyes again, the anger was gone and all Steven could see in her eyes was fear and sadness. "We thought- you went back to Homeworld, Steven! You took another human with you! After your friend was killed and stranded! And you snuck off and left us a note!? How could you do that to us? We were so scared!"

"I'm sorry," he whispered again, feeling about two inches tall. "It won't happen again."

"You're right, it won't." She snapped her fingers and her shades reappeared. "You are grounded, young man. You are not to leave this house, let alone this planet, without seeking permission first. If you do..." She trailed off ominously.

"OK," he agreed at once. He had no idea what Garnet would do (and truth be told, Garnet didn't either) and he was pretty sure he didn't want to find out. "I'll just... I'll go inside now."

"Good." Some of the sting had left her voice now. "Stay there."

Once inside, he went directly to the fridge and started looking for something to eat, well aware that all three of Garnet's eyes were watching him with every move. How long was she going to do that for?

As it turned out, not long. Five minutes later, just as he was heating up a can of soup, she adjusted her shades and frowned. "They should be back by now, what's taking so long?" she muttered to herself. Then she abruptly spun around, marched over to the bathroom door and knocked. "Peridot?"

"...Yes?" Peridot's voice sounded cautiously from the other side.

"I need you to come out of there and keep an eye on Steven while I go and look for Pearl and Amethyst. Don't let him leave the house."

Peridot pushed the door open a crack and scowled up at the other gem. "Do I have to?"

"Yes," Garnet said flatly.

Peridot glanced over in Steven's direction and she sighed reluctantly. "Fine. If I must."

"You must." And with that, she walked off towards the warp pad and disappeared without a backwards glance.

A tense silence fell over the house. Peridot came fully out of the bathroom, sat down on the sofa and began tapping away at her tablet screen. Steven took his soup off the heat, poured it into a bowl and began eating, trying to stretch out the meal for as long as possible so he wouldn't have to face her. But of course, he could only eat for so long, and so when he was done, and the dirty dishes had been cleaned and put away, he took a deep breath and walked over to stand beside her. "Hey."

Peridot didn't respond.

"OK. You're mad at me, I totally deserve it." He moved to sit down next to her, but when he saw her shoulders tense, he thought better of it. "Um, we should probably talk."

Peridot continued to tap away at her tablet screen, resolutely ignoring him, and Steven felt his heart sink. "I know I messed up, you have every right to be mad at me, but please, just let me explain!"

This time, instead of just quietly ignoring him, Peridot opened her music app and hit play. Steven stared incredulously at her and shook his head. "OK, now you're just being childish."

It was true, but Peridot didn't care. Instead, she turned the music up. Then she finally glanced up at him, silently daring him to try and snatch it out of her hands like Amethyst had once done. And for a split second, Steven almost considered doing it, if only to try and provoke her into actually reacting, but the moment swiftly passed. "I'm sorry." He straightened up and stepped back. "I'll head up to my room and leave you alone now."

He turned and took a step towards the stairs, swallowing down the lump in his throat. Perhaps if he had a nap, one without any Diamond dreams, he might feel a little better. And maybe then Peridot might be willing to hear what he had to say. If he'd learned anything from his recent quarrel with Connie, it was that pestering her with apologies would do no good if she wasn't ready to hear them.

Anyway, she could hardly ignore him forever, not when she lived in his bathroom.

He didn't even realize he'd said anything until he heard her mutter, "-worked for Connie."

He stopped and half-turned back towards her. "What was that?"

Peridot looked away at once, a faint blush on her cheeks. "Nothing."

Steven stared at her for a moment and then cautiously took a step back towards her. "Peri... are you jealous?"

She thought about ignoring him some more, but it seemed kind of pointless now she's spoken, so she sighed and put the tablet aside. "Of course I'm jealous. We've only been dating for three days and you've spent half of that time fused with somebody else. That's not why I'm angry though," she added before he could comment on that.

"Oh." He took another cautious step towards her and opened his mouth to ask why, then snapped it shut again. Now she was talking to him again, he really didn't want to say the wrong thing and have her clam up again, so instead, he sat down silently next to her and waited.

"Why didn't you ask for my help?" she finally asked, turning to look directly at him for the first time. "Until I came to Earth, I spent my entire life on Homeworld. I know how things work there, I could've helped! When you came back to the house with Connie and found nobody here, did you even stop to look for anyone? Or did you jump at the chance to leave without having to seek permission? It's a rhetorical question, you don't need to answer that," she added flatly. "I was up in the garden. If you'd done even a cursory examination of the area, you would've found me."

Steven flushed and ducked his head. She was right. He'd known the gems would never agree to let him and Connie visit Lars without supervision; in fact, he strongly suspected that if he'd asked, they would've refused to let him go at all. But he'd promised Lars' parents he'd personally make sure their son got their package, and so he'd deliberately chosen to return to the house at a time when he knew the gems weren't likely to be around.

Including Peridot.

"I'm angry and hurt that you didn't think to even ask me for any information that could've been of use to you. Then again," she added a little bitterly, "nobody listened when I tried to instruct you all on the operation of the Ruby ship, I don't know why I thought things would be any different this time." She crossed her arms and sat back moodily. "I know my gem powers are limited, my fighting skills even more so, but I always thought you, at least, respected my intelligence."

"I do respect your intelligence," he protested, shocked into speech. "Peridot, you're the smartest person I know!"

"Then _why_ didn't you ask for my help?" she repeated, turning to face him again. "Steven, I love you and I don't really want to break up with you already. But for our relationship to work, we need to communicate with each other, and we need mutual respect and right now, I don't feel as though I have that from you."

Steven winced. "I'm sorry," he said humbly. "I didn't realize I made you feel that way, I never meant that to happen." He paused for a moment and tried to work out how to explain his motives to her in a way that didn't sound patronizing. "I didn't ask for your help because... because I knew you'd want to come with us, and I was afraid you'd get hurt. I don't mean I don't think you can't take care of yourself," he hastily added. "I know you can, you rigged up that old ship and almost killed us!"

Peridot narrowed her eyes and uncurled slightly. "Go on."

Encouraged, he took a deep breath and carried on. "Last time I was on Homeworld, Lars died protecting the Off-Colors from the robonoids in the Kindergarten. They're programmed to destroy all the gems they find there, but they ignored him, because he doesn't have a gem. That's why I knew Connie would be OK, if they showed up again, they wouldn't see her. And she had my mom's sword and I've already seen her use it to defeat a scary, floaty killy thing. And that was before Pearl started training her. But I was too scared to take you as well." Sudden tears rose in his eyes and he blinked them away. "I couldn't be sure you'd be safe, not after what happened to Lars. What if they shattered you? I don't know if my tears will work on gems. Or what if Yellow Diamond caught you? Last time you saw her, you called her a clod and she tried to blow you up. Like you said, she won't fail a second time. I couldn't risk it, I couldn't risk losing you."

They sat in silence for a moment, and then Peridot reached over and punched him on the arm. "You absolute clod. Did it never cross your mind that I might have the same concern towards you?"

"Ow." It didn't actually hurt, but he rubbed the spot anyway. "I guess that didn't really occur to me until we got stranded." He sighed. "I'm really sorry, Peridot."

"Hmm." She mulled it over and then leaned against him. "I suppose I accept your apology. But if you pull another stunt like this," she added sternly, "I can't promise I'll be so understanding."

"That's fair. I messed up." He sighed and put his arm around her to give her a quick hug. "You know the really stupid thing? If you'd come with us, we probably wouldn't have wound up stuck on that planet all day, 'cause you could've flown that ship better."

Peridot laughed at that and then leaned up and gave him a quick peck on the cheek. "I'm glad you're back safe. I was worried about you. We all were."

"I'm sorry," he said again.

"You can stop apologizing now," she murmured. "I already forgave you."


	6. Chapter 6

Originally written for Stevidot Month 2019

THE PROMISE

It had been a beautiful ceremony. Now it was time for the party. The chairs had been put aside to make way for a dance floor, and all around, people were chatting and laughing and enjoying the relaxed atmosphere. Amethyst was making sure the buffet didn't go to waste. Pearl was teaching Bismuth how to do the Macarena. Garnet was dancing a slow dance with herself, oblivious to the actual tempo of the music. Connie was now really far too old to stand on her dad's shoes while he danced, but they were doing it anyway while Dr Maheswaran took photos.

Peridot was watching all these events with a mixture of curiosity and confusion when Steven flung himself into the chair next to her. "Hi. You OK there? Having fun?" he asked.

"Hmm?" She turned away from the fascinating sight of ex-Mayor Dewey trying to do the Macarena too; he'd consumed almost an entire bottle of wine by this point and was in real danger of accidentally punching himself in the face. "Oh, yes," she assured him. "I just wished to observe proceedings for a period."

"Well, when you're done observing, could I have the next dance?" he asked hopefully.

Peridot looked warily at Bill Dewey's flailing arms. "I don't know... it looks dangerous."

"Huh?" He looked over just in time to see the ex-Mayor swat Barb in the back of the head, sending her crashing to the ground. "Ah. Well, maybe we'll wait for a slow song. They're easy," he promised. "You just sway."

And so a few minutes later, once the casualties had been cleared out of the way, Steven led her out onto the dance floor. "OK, so you just put your arms around me," he instructed.

Still looking wary, Peridot did as she was told and embraced him stiffly. She let out a small squeak of surprise when he put his arms around her waist too and started to sway her in time to the music, but after a few moments, she relaxed against him. "This is nice," she admitted.

"Yeah." He looked down at her and smiled softly to himself when she absently leaned her head against his chest. "You look really pretty in that dress," he whispered.

"Of course I do," she said, smiling smugly. "Your new attire enhances your physical attributes as well."

He blinked and tilted his head as he tried to figure out what she meant. "Did you just say I look good too?" he checked.

She laughed and nodded. "You look good too," she clarified, and leaned up slightly to give him a small kiss. Behind him, she spotted Garnet grin and give her a thumbs up and she blushed and looked away to where Buck was persuading his father to drink a pint of water. "What happens now?" she suddenly asked.

"We party for the rest of the night," Steven said promptly. "Maybe dance some more-"

"No, I mean, what happens with Garnet?" she interrupted. "How does this 'wedding' alter her relationship going forward?"

"Uh..." Steven stopped swaying as he tried to think. "I guess... it kinda doesn't," he said slowly.

Peridot frowned in confusion. "Then what was the purpose of this ceremony?"

He relaxed again. He knew the answer to that one. "To reaffirm Ruby and Sapphire's love for one another."

"But couldn't they have just... said that?" Peridot pressed. "I still don't understand what this 'wedding' thing actually _achieves._ Is it simply a love celebration party?"

"Well... I guess. Kind of," he admitted. "The wedding ceremony is a chance for the happy couple to celebrate their love with family and friends," he explained, gesturing towards the other guests.

Peridot looked towards all the smiling, laughing people he was indication and pursed her lips thoughtfully. "Could _we_ have a wedding?"

"What? No!" He laughed and then grabbed at her as she pulled away, hurt. "Wait, Peri, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to laugh. It's just, a wedding is the beginning of a marriage. _That's_ the important bit."

"I've heard that term before, but I don't really understand what it means," Peridot said with a sigh.

"Marriage is..." he hesitated. He wasn't _entirely_ sure what the purpose of marriage was either, if he was honest. Connie's parents were really the only married people he knew. "It makes it more official," he said lamely. "And I think there's like, legal benefits? Like um, tax breaks and childcare stuff?"

"But that doesn't help Garnet," Peridot pointed out.

"No, true. But there's more to it," he insisted. "Marriage is... is like a promise, a promise between two people that they'll work together to keep their relationship happy and healthy, no matter what happens to them."

"But I want to do that!" she exclaimed. "So let's have a marriage wedding!"

"No!" he said again. "We can't, we're not allowed!"

"Why?" she asked suspiciously.

"We're too young," he said simply. "It's a thing for grown-ups."

"But why?" she asked again.

"'Cause of the honeymoon," Connie said, suddenly popping up behind Steven, making him jump violently. "Hi. Having fun?"

"What's a 'honeymoon'?" Peridot asked, ignoring her question. "Steven, why have you gone all red and sweaty?"

"It's not because of the honeymoon!" Steven protested, trying to fan the furious blush from his face. "It's because uh, legal um, things."

"Marriage is a legally binding, long-term contract," Connie explained, finally taking pity on him. "We're too young to consent to that. Also," she pointedly added, "neither of you should be getting married until you actually understand what that means." She stepped back and clapped them both on the back. "I'm going to go grab some nibbly bits before Amethyst eats the lot. No child marriages while I'm gone," she ordered sternly.

"Yes, Connie," they said meekly in unison.

They waited until she was out of earshot and then Peridot sighed and slumped against his chest again. "I suppose that adequately answers my question," she conceded.

"Yeah," Steven muttered and silently prayed she wouldn't ask about honeymoons again. "Although..." he said slowly, "maybe we could do something anyway..."

"Oh?" She looked intrigued. "Like what?"

"Well, we don't _have_ to get married, lots of people don't," he said with rising enthusiasm. "I mean, my mom and dad never did. Then again, maybe she just didn't feel right doing it when she was lying to him about her whole identity-"

"Steven..." Peridot quietly interrupted.

"Right. Sorry," he said sheepishly. "But yeah, we don't have to get married, not right now, but we can still make our relationship official." He stepped back and knelt down in front of her. "Peridot, will you be my girlfriend?"

She smiled happily and nodded. "Yes. Yes, I will-"

"Hey!" Connie ran over, leaving a trail of chips in her haste. "You two didn't just get engaged, did you?" she asked in concern. "I was joking about the whole child wedding thing, I didn't think you two were really gonna do it!"

Steven laughed and stood up and brushed the sand off his knees. "Don't worry," he assured her. "We're not engaged." He smiled and took Peridot's hands in his. "We just made a promise."


End file.
